The injured Kawhi Leonard is reportedly becoming 'disconnected' from the Spurs

Kawhi Leonard has been limited to only nine games this season for the San Antonio Spurs, missing the bulk of the year due to persistent right quadriceps tendinopathy that has baffled and frustrated the Spurs’ coaches and training staff since September. With Leonard’s brief return scuttled and the two-time All-Star once again sidelined indefinitely, it sounds like those frustrations — on all sides — might be starting to boil over.

Adrian Wojnarowski, Michael C. Wright and Zach Lowe of ESPN.com reported Monday morning that “discord” over the handling of Leonard’s injury — how it’s being treated, how he’s rehabbing it, when he’d be expected to return — have “had a chilling impact” on his relationship with the Spurs, leading to the two-time Defensive Player of the Year becoming “‘distant'” and ‘disconnected’ from the organization.” The Spurs, for their part, dispute that framing, according to ESPN:

“There is no issue between the Spurs organization and Kawhi,” [Spurs general manager R.C.] Buford told ESPN. “From Day 1 all parties have worked together to find the best solutions to his injury.”

Buford described a frustrating process of rehabilitation for what has been an elusive solution to an injury.

“This has been difficult for everyone,” Buford told ESPN. “It’s been difficult for Kawhi. He’s an elite level player. It’s been difficult for the team, because they want to play with a great teammate. And it’s been difficult for our staff. Historically we’ve been able to successfully manage injuries. This rehab hasn’t been simple and it hasn’t gone in a linear fashion.”

Leonard missed the first 27 games of the season due to the right quadriceps tendinopathy. He made his season debut last month against the Dallas Mavericks, scoring 13 points and grabbing six rebounds in 16 minutes of work; he’d make eight more appearances, playing consecutive games just twice in the span of 17 Spurs games due to both careful management of the quad and a “partial tear” in his left shoulder suffered in a win over the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 5.

Leonard returned to the lineup on Jan. 13 and looked something like the fire of old, scoring 19 points on just eight shots to go with eight rebounds, four assists, four steals and one block in 29 minutes as the Spurs decimated the Denver Nuggets at AT&T Center in Texas. Afterward, Popovich sounded excited at the prospect of getting his top gun back in full form.

And yet, when Leonard warmed up before last Monday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks, hoping to play on fewer than two days’ rest for the first time this season, he just “didn’t feel right,” according to Popovich. So the coach sat him down in favor of giving his star some more rest before getting him back into the fold for Wednesday’s matchup with the Brooklyn Nets. Two days later, though, the Spurs chose to put him back on ice indefinitely.

“It hasn’t responded the way we wanted it to,” Popovich told Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. “He’s given it a shot. He’s frustrated as hell. He wants to play badly. But if we’re going to err, we’re going to do it on the side of health and being wise.”

Making the situation a bit more frustrating and fraught? That franchise-legend point guard Tony Parker, who spent his summer rehabilitating a similar injury after suffering a ruptured quad tendon during the Western Conference semifinals, was able to return to the court in late November. (“What’s really strange is that Tony Parker has the same injury, but even worse,” Popovich told reporters in November.) The 35-year-old Frenchman hasn’t been as dynamic or productive as he was in his younger days — that, in part, is why he just lost his starting job to youngster Dejounte Murray — but even so, Popovich has been able to turn to Parker for 20 minutes a night for the last 20 games and know whathe’s going to get. When he’ll be able to say the same for Leonard, at this point, remains very much an open question.

“We sought outside expertise with the best tendon experts in the world,” Buford told ESPN. “It worked beautifully for Tony but it hasn’t worked the same for Kawhi.”

For years, the Spurs have seemed more capable than just about any other franchise in the NBA of taking adversity as it comes without letting it derail them. They said goodbye to Tim Duncan and won 61 games. They lost Leonard and Parker in Round 2 and still beat the Rockets to make the conference finals. LaMarcus Aldridge was so disgruntled by the way he was being used that he straight-up requested a trade; they got everyone on the same page, and now Aldridge is in line for his sixth All-Star while keeping the Spurs on pace for their 19th consecutive 50-win season.

If you’re a Spurs fan, you’re hoping for a similar resolution to whatever issue might exist between Leonard and the team — that some direct communication can bridge any “distance,” that specific concerns about how the injury’s being handled can be raised and addressed dispassionately without pointing of fingers, and that all involved can move forward with a singular focus on getting one of the NBA’s best players back on the floor in full working order as soon as possible. This is what the Spurs do; they deal with their issues, adjust accordingly, and get back on track for a deep playoff run.

This particular flavor of issue, though — the publication of internal discord prior to it getting all cleared up — is one we haven’t seen very much during Pop’s two decades at the wheel. How quickly and effectively San Antonio handles it could determine whether the second half of the Spurs’ season is the story of a team coming together to make another bid for a Finals berth, or of cracks starting to show in the facade of one of sports’ most reliably excellent franchises.